The compromise fell apart more than 12 years before the freeway bridge.

It was a deal on a grand scale - a $1.86 billion package to rebuild the Marquette and Zoo interchanges, widen I-94 with bus and car-pool lanes from downtown Milwaukee to Waukesha, erect a light rail system and expand bus service.

If the 1997 East-West Corridor plan had been approved, reconstruction of the Zoo Interchange could have started in early 2008.

But the deal crumbled under attack from the same forces that dominate the Milwaukee-area transportation debate today: One side that insists on freeway expansion without rail transit; and one that insists on rail transit without freeway expansion.

Now, with the start of Zoo Interchange reconstruction still nearly six years away, the failure of a key span in the freeway crossroads has reignited the debate, with two gubernatorial candidates - Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett - repeating positions they voiced a dozen years ago.

While politicians argue over whom to blame for the cracked bridge, others blame Wisconsin's endless political gridlock on transportation.

"No one's making decisions," said Jim Klauser, the former state administration secretary who brokered the 1997 deal for then-Gov. Tommy G. Thompson. "When Tommy sent me in to work something out, he would give me some guidance where he wanted me to go. . . . We just didn't sit and talk and talk."

Ken Yunker, executive director of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, bemoans the conflict between "people who use the automobile and don't use public transit and will deny there's any need for public transit" and "people who use public transit and will deny any need to improve the highway system. . . . The fact of the matter is, we need both."

That divide was highlighted March 26, when the state Department of Transportation shut down the northbound bridge from I-894 to U.S. Highway 45, citing structural deterioration. A week later, the state opened a temporary bridge, which had been under construction for three months because of concerns that the permanent structure and two others would not last until the interchange could be rebuilt.

Republican Walker immediately blamed the collapse on Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and Barrett, the likely Democratic nominee. Walker said Barrett and Doyle should have pushed to start Zoo Interchange reconstruction earlier, instead of supporting $810 million in federal money for an unrelated high-speed train line to Madison.

Doyle said the state couldn't afford to start the interchange project sooner. Barrett said that he opposed expanding the interchange but never opposed rebuilding it; that he had always supported a balance between highways and transit; and that if Wisconsin turned down the train money, it would go to another state's trains, not to highways. Walker said he would lobby Congress to redirect the money to the interchange and other area freeway work.

Lengthy controversy

Both freeway and transit projects have been controversial for years. Neighborhood protests blocked completion of the Milwaukee County freeway system in the 1960s and 1970s, and killed construction of a bus-only road parallel to I-94 in 1993.

By then, the state Department of Transportation was planning to rebuild - and perhaps expand - I-94 and the Marquette and Zoo interchanges, all of which would reach the end of their useful lives when they turned 50. In the mid-1990s, state engineers called the region's freeways "obsolete, unsafe, congested and crumbling."

Fearing environmental rules and public opposition would prevent construction of regular freeway lanes, the state sought to use $241 million in federal aid, originally slated for the busway, to add bus and car-pool lanes to I-94.

That started the East-West Corridor study. By federal rules, the study reviewed all options, comparing high- occupancy vehicle lanes to light rail - a system under discussion since the early 1980s - and expanded bus service. The discussion was extensive, but agreement elusive.

Then-Milwaukee Mayor John O. Norquist led transit advocates, environmentalists and neighborhood activists in arguing freeway expansion would take too many homes, businesses and graves, while light rail would be more environmentally sound. Barrett, then a congressman from Milwaukee, was part of that group.

Then-Waukesha County Executive Dan Finley led suburban forces in arguing that freeway expansion was needed to ease congestion and that light rail would be too costly and inflexible. Walker, then a state legislator from Wauwatosa, was part of that group.

Finally, Thompson dispatched Klauser, his most trusted adviser, to cut a deal. The resulting compromise offered something for everyone: $1.32 billion for freeway reconstruction, including $460 million for the Marquette Interchange, $250 million for special lanes and $610 million for the Zoo Interchange and the rest of I-94 together; $444 million for a 16-mile light-rail system from the Third Ward to the northwest side and the Milwaukee County Zoo; and $90 million to expand bus service.

The plan called for Marquette Interchange work from 2001 through 2004, building light rail lines from 2002 through 2006 and the rest of the freeway work, including the Zoo Interchange, from 2008 through 2013.

At first, the deal won praise from Norquist, Finley and then-Milwaukee County Executive F. Thomas Ament for its balanced approach. But fissures soon developed over who would pay for what.

Under pressure from conservative talk radio, Thompson and Republican lawmakers - including Walker - rejected spending any state money on light rail. Democratic state legislators then blocked money for new lanes, with Barrett's support.

Piecemeal approach

With the package dead, officials moved separately on its pieces. The Marquette Interchange was the Transportation Department's top priority because it was in the worst shape, said Leslie Fafard, the department's former southeastern regional director. That $810 million job started in 2004 and ended in 2008.

Under a 1999 deal among Thompson, Norquist and Ament, the $241 million in federal aid once targeted for bus and car-pool lanes was instead split among several projects - including $78 million for the Marquette Interchange - leaving $91.5 million for public transit. After years of local bickering, Congress divided the remaining cash between Barrett's proposed modern streetcar line downtown and Milwaukee County buses, possibly Walker's bus rapid transit plan.

Meanwhile, the planning commission set up a study committee on the future of the rest of the region's freeway system. But that panel was split by the same divisions over that helped sink the East-West Corridor plan.

The commission staff sought a compromise, recommending wider freeways in many suburban areas but no expansion on 19 miles of I-43 and I-94, primarily in the city.

In a pivotal 2003 vote, however, the panel rejected the compromise and demanded new lanes on the city stretches as well. Walker and Finley led the push for freeway expansion, backed largely by suburban and business representatives. Norquist battled the expansion, with support mainly from Fafard and other city and state officials.

Barrett also came out against wider freeways in his 2002 gubernatorial campaign and 2004 mayoral race.

In 2006, another planning commission advisory panel toned down the recommendation, urging more study before expanding the freeway stretches in the city.

Neither study panel, however, set a timetable for which freeway project would come after the Marquette Interchange: the Zoo Interchange or I-94 north-south from Milwaukee to Chicago. Walker said he supported both but didn't advocate for one over the other.

Fafard said Transportation Department officials picked I-94 north-south to avoid a long gap between major construction projects - partly to keep construction workers on the job.

State politics played no role in the decision, said Fafard, now with the transportation consulting firm Short Elliott Hendrickson.

Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

About Larry Sandler

Larry Sandler has been writing about government, politics, transportation, business and education in Wisconsin and Illinois for more than 25 years. He joined the Milwaukee Sentinel's staff as a general assignment reporter in 1982, after covering county government, politics and business for The Pantagraph of Bloomington-Normal, Ill. At the Sentinel, he reported on higher education, the Milwaukee Public Schools, Milwaukee County government and the manufacturing and transportation industries. After the April 1995 merger of the Sentinel and the Milwaukee Journal, Sandler became the transportation reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and from May 2001 to May 2007, he also wrote the weekly Road Warrior column. His investigation into flaws in aviation security earned a first-place award in the Milwaukee Press Club’s 2004 Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism Contest. Sandler was named City Hall reporter in June 2007 and continues to cover public transit issues as well. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and a master’s degree in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois at Springfield.

About Tom Held

A reporter with the Journal Company since 1985. Covered police, local government, non-profits, major crimes and disasters.
Created Off the Couch blog in 2006 and expanded coverage of outdoor recreation.